HEMINGWAY, PLAIN ADVERBS AND PREPOSITIONAL PHRASES
Among the few arguments that those who dislike adverbs make is that, “Ernest Hemingway never used adverbs,” especially –ly adverbs. How do they parse it? “Only new and inexperienced writers use adverbs and adjectives.”
The conclusion – unless you are a copy cat of Hemingway (since he is apparently the model one should emulate) you are wasting your time. Does that crown Hemingway as the best writer in the English language?
These conclusions are egregious nonsense, of course.
Such statements say more about the lack of understanding of the English language on the part of people making these statements than anything else.
Hemingway used lots of adverbs.
The trouble is too many Dubious Advisors don’t recognize them.
Hemingway used prepositional phrases which serve the identical purpose as stand alone adverbs in modifying a verb or other part of speech. To quote Shakespeare, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Prepositional phrases function as either adverbs or adjectives. Period.
More than that, to those who cry never use prepositional phrases, they, too, are displaying an insufficient knowledge of language.
Adverbs in their various forms are the work horse part of speech in English.
Dubious Advisors who cannot recognize the various forms of adverbs are like fish in a pond who believe the pond constitutes the entire world.
To understand adverbs in their entirety, let’s revisit prepositional phrases for a moment.
Lest you forgot, a prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun. Some common prepositions (position words) are:
up down over upon under around within….for….with
at without from in out against to above
Take a look at some prepositional phrases (ending nouns or pronouns are in italics):
around the corner above the trees
in the bathroom within limits
on the kitchen table without a cent
in her arms against the wall
under the tombstone beneath the sea
with them for him
This is how prepositional phrases are used as adverbs -
Let’s look at the first sentence of Hemingway’s classic novel, A Farewell to Arms.
In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains.
Read down and take the sentence apart. LIVE is the verb.
“In the late summer phrase tells when they lived
of that year phrase tells when they lived
we lived lived is the verb being modified.
in a house phrase tells where narrator lived
in a village phrase tells where house was
that looked looked is the verb being modified
across the river and the plain phrase tells where view was
to the mountains. phrase - same as above.
The title to one of Hemingway’s books consist solely of adverb phrases – Across the river and into the trees.
He also wrote short stories. Let’s look at the first sentence of chapter five of “The Intruders.”
They shot the six cabinet ministers at half past six in the morning against the wall of a hospital.
Following are the prepositional phrases which function as adverbs in the sentence. (The verb is SHOT)
at half past six when
in the morning when
against the wall where
Of a hospital. where
The lesson here is - adverbs come in different sizes and shapes including clauses which are a separate essay.
Writers must be proactive.
Ask why. Check out statements that are anointed as truth. Expect written handouts that you can inspect at your leisure. Beware of handouts that are simply a passage of some obscure author’s short story or essay. These are handed out with the statement - implied or otherwise - that the passage is an example of splendid writing.
As Tom Sawyer said to Huck Finn, “Saying so don’t make it so.” How many books have you picked up and then put down because you did not like it? Yet they were published. How many singers have you heard that other people raved about but it wasn’t to your taste? Public taste varies.
While there is no magic bullet to becoming a good writer, nothing prevents writers from being skeptical and exercising good judgment as to what can or cannot help him or her develop.
A last example to demonstrate the enduring strength and necessity of adverbs or adverb phrases comes from Shakespeare, Act Two, scene 11, line 76 of Romeo and Juliet.
Adverbs and adverbial phrases are in italics:
Romeo - Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet
And I am proof against their enmity.
Juliet - I would not for the world they saw thee here,
Romeo - I have night’s clock to hide me from their eyes,
And, but thou love me, let them find me here.
My life were better ended by their hate
Than death prorogued wanting of they love.
Caveat – Nothing presented here is proof against those people who will only pay you provided you write according to their dictates.
For further examples of adverb use in unquestioned major works, see The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye and columnist, Anna Quindlen, go to http://Secondopin.blogspot.com/
Among the few arguments that those who dislike adverbs make is that, “Ernest Hemingway never used adverbs,” especially –ly adverbs. How do they parse it? “Only new and inexperienced writers use adverbs and adjectives.”
The conclusion – unless you are a copy cat of Hemingway (since he is apparently the model one should emulate) you are wasting your time. Does that crown Hemingway as the best writer in the English language?
These conclusions are egregious nonsense, of course.
Such statements say more about the lack of understanding of the English language on the part of people making these statements than anything else.
Hemingway used lots of adverbs.
The trouble is too many Dubious Advisors don’t recognize them.
Hemingway used prepositional phrases which serve the identical purpose as stand alone adverbs in modifying a verb or other part of speech. To quote Shakespeare, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Prepositional phrases function as either adverbs or adjectives. Period.
More than that, to those who cry never use prepositional phrases, they, too, are displaying an insufficient knowledge of language.
Adverbs in their various forms are the work horse part of speech in English.
Dubious Advisors who cannot recognize the various forms of adverbs are like fish in a pond who believe the pond constitutes the entire world.
To understand adverbs in their entirety, let’s revisit prepositional phrases for a moment.
Lest you forgot, a prepositional phrase begins with a preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun. Some common prepositions (position words) are:
up down over upon under around within….for….with
at without from in out against to above
Take a look at some prepositional phrases (ending nouns or pronouns are in italics):
around the corner above the trees
in the bathroom within limits
on the kitchen table without a cent
in her arms against the wall
under the tombstone beneath the sea
with them for him
This is how prepositional phrases are used as adverbs -
Let’s look at the first sentence of Hemingway’s classic novel, A Farewell to Arms.
In the late summer of that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains.
Read down and take the sentence apart. LIVE is the verb.
“In the late summer phrase tells when they lived
of that year phrase tells when they lived
we lived lived is the verb being modified.
in a house phrase tells where narrator lived
in a village phrase tells where house was
that looked looked is the verb being modified
across the river and the plain phrase tells where view was
to the mountains. phrase - same as above.
The title to one of Hemingway’s books consist solely of adverb phrases – Across the river and into the trees.
He also wrote short stories. Let’s look at the first sentence of chapter five of “The Intruders.”
They shot the six cabinet ministers at half past six in the morning against the wall of a hospital.
Following are the prepositional phrases which function as adverbs in the sentence. (The verb is SHOT)
at half past six when
in the morning when
against the wall where
Of a hospital. where
The lesson here is - adverbs come in different sizes and shapes including clauses which are a separate essay.
Writers must be proactive.
Ask why. Check out statements that are anointed as truth. Expect written handouts that you can inspect at your leisure. Beware of handouts that are simply a passage of some obscure author’s short story or essay. These are handed out with the statement - implied or otherwise - that the passage is an example of splendid writing.
As Tom Sawyer said to Huck Finn, “Saying so don’t make it so.” How many books have you picked up and then put down because you did not like it? Yet they were published. How many singers have you heard that other people raved about but it wasn’t to your taste? Public taste varies.
While there is no magic bullet to becoming a good writer, nothing prevents writers from being skeptical and exercising good judgment as to what can or cannot help him or her develop.
A last example to demonstrate the enduring strength and necessity of adverbs or adverb phrases comes from Shakespeare, Act Two, scene 11, line 76 of Romeo and Juliet.
Adverbs and adverbial phrases are in italics:
Romeo - Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye
Than twenty of their swords. Look thou but sweet
And I am proof against their enmity.
Juliet - I would not for the world they saw thee here,
Romeo - I have night’s clock to hide me from their eyes,
And, but thou love me, let them find me here.
My life were better ended by their hate
Than death prorogued wanting of they love.
Caveat – Nothing presented here is proof against those people who will only pay you provided you write according to their dictates.
For further examples of adverb use in unquestioned major works, see The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird, Catcher in the Rye and columnist, Anna Quindlen, go to http://Secondopin.blogspot.com/